Mapping the remaining habitat for the threatened marsh deer in its southern range.

CARLOS DE ANGELO; JULIA MARTÍNEZ PARDO; DIEGO VARELA; CIRIGNOLI, SEBASTIÁN; DI GIÁCOMO, ADRIÁN

Monterrey

Conferencia; 21st SCGIS Annual Conference; 2018

Society for Conservation GIS

The marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) is the largest native deer in South America, a threatened deer that in Argentina, only survives in a few areas. Our aim was to model the habitat for marsh deer in the main population of Argentina (Iberá), and from this to expand the model to all the northeast of the country for detecting other potential populations, expansion areas, and corridors. At Iberá, we used presence records from aerial census along all the area. Using GIS and remote sensing, we generated landscapes variables describing the natural cover and human pressures. We used Maxent for modeling the habitat for Iberá and from the results of this local model, we compiled presence data along the northeast of Argentina and we expanded the model for the whole area. The main variables that determined marsh deer habitat were the distance to water bodies, wetland cover, lower elevations, low human accessibility, and protected areas. At Iberá, we estimated 180,000 ha still preserving high-quality habitat. Considering all the northeast of Argentina, the model clearly detected the two already known main populations (Iberá and Delta of Paraná), but also smaller potential core areas, corridors, and expansion areas. Habitat models can work at different scales and with different levels of information, allowing to learn from the species ecology and to use the available information for developing conservation and management tools.